


A Billion Empty Skulls

by treefrogie84



Series: Take the love that I've embraced [2]
Category: Supernatural, Wayward Sisters (TV)
Genre: Claire Novak is a Winchester, F/F, Past Character Death, mcd aftermath, questionable decisions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-18
Updated: 2018-10-18
Packaged: 2019-08-02 08:43:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16301867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/treefrogie84/pseuds/treefrogie84
Summary: Step one: get Kaia's body back to this plane of existence. Everything after that is details.





	A Billion Empty Skulls

**Author's Note:**

> This is a prequel to [Found Your Place In the World Tonight ](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14343144). Not to give away anything, but ya know. If you're reading this, you've probably already read that.

“Alex? Claire?” Patience calls, coming around the corner of the Bunker. “Where are you guys?”

“In here,” Alex calls faintly. “Same room.”

Patience follows her voice down the hall and into the door that’s still propped open. They’d learned that lesson early-- as long as the door stayed open, the hallways didn’t rearrange. Alex and Claire are sitting on the floor, digging through old storage boxes, taking notes on what artifacts and objects are nearby and which are missing or at least aren’t in this room.

“Here’s your coffee.” Patience passes the cups over. “There wasn’t any of your nasty ass pumpkin creamer in the fridge, so you get normal half and half.”

“Pumpkin spice is delicious and you should love it.” Alex sticks her tongue out before pulling her phone from her pocket and sending a text. “I’ll just ask Sam to pick some up for me.”

“You do that. Because it’s disgusting and tastes _nothing_ like pumpkin.” Patience shudders theatrically before flopping to the ground in front of her abandoned box and resuming her filing. “It doesn’t even taste like pumpkin pie. Any breakthroughs?”

Alex shrugs, points a thumb over her shoulder. “We’ve got a Mirror of Erised, in case you didn’t learn _that_ lesson.”

Patience looks over to the heavy mirror standing in the corner. From this angle, she can barely see the mirror itself, only the worn frame. “Nah, I’m good. Harry’s enough of an idiot for the both of us.”

Claire says nothing, barely glancing over at the steaming cup of coffee that Patience left by her knee. It’s the third cup today Patience and Alex have brought her and Patience is pretty sure this one will also go cold, forgotten.

Patience sighs and looks back into her own pile. Most of this box is spells, fragile parchment and scrolls in file folders or with labels tied on with kite string.

Shifting, Patience bends back over the box.

* * *

 

Hours, days, later, Claire looks up from the current box with a slightly manic look. “I need item uh… DC1896/R57.”

“What?” Patience asks tiredly from the floor. “What is it? This system is meaningless.”

Claire’s already looking at the shelves on the right side of the room, combing through the few things that are left unorganized. “A panel, ivory. Not very big, uh… two and a half inches by three?”

“Okay…” Patience draws out. “Wanna tell me why we’re looking for a bit of stolen art?”

“Because this one is a portal between worlds.” Claire drags a wooden box forward, careful to not let it fall off the edge. “And I’m going to get her back. Or kill the thing that killed her.”

“Claire, that’s not--”

“I don’t care. It’s been _months_ , Patience. Months. And we’ve had nothing since Jack turned up that bit of lore about dreamwalkers and Purgatory.” Claire drops the box onto the table between them, a cloud of dust exploding up and choking them both.

“At least let me get Jody,” Patience tries. “We want to help, but you have to--”

Claire shakes her head, double checks that her weapons are in place. “Fuck that, fuck this, I’m going.” She lifts the lid off the box, glancing down at the ivory panel inside. “Okay, uh… Portunus. Let’s do this.”

She fumbles her way through the incantation, focusing on Kaia and reaching her as quickly as possible.

Or not.

The world quits spinning, depositing her back in the bunker storeroom, facing a middle aged woman who looks vaguely familiar. There’s something about how she holds her head, her dark hair pinned up in a style that looks like it’s out of the history books. She looks tired though, utter exhaustion weighing down every limb. It’s only when she steps to one side, drawing a weapon, that Claire can see the bruising along one cheek, a still swollen split lip.

“Who the hell are you?” Claire bursts out, hand hovering over the panel.

The woman raises an eyebrow, glances at the identical artifact on the other side of the table. “Castiel. And you?”

“Since when are you a _woman_? How long was I gone?”

Castiel tilts her head, “You… Touched by an angel’s grace, but no longer a vessel. You think you know me?”

“I _know_ I know you. Or a version of you. Except you’re in my dad there, and a lot less uptight.”

Castiel nods, “You’re in the wrong universe, little one. Move on.”

Claire stares at her, putting together the bruising and Castiel’s impatience. “You’re… going after Dean.”

Castiel lets out a humorless laugh, running a careful finger along the cheek of the carved ram’s head on the panel. “Beware giving demons your heart, Claire Novak. They will always drag you to Hell.” She nods

Well… that’s a happy thought. Claire reaches down, recites the spell again, and waits for the world to resolve itself.

It’s pitch black this time, with odd little squeaks above her head. The room doesn’t feel like the bunker anymore either, it’s colder, more humid. As much as she doesn’t want to admit to listening to Sam and Patience’s lectures on the proper way to store manuscripts… she’s pretty sure a literal cave is not on the approved places list.

Groping around, she picks up the panel, shoving it in a pocket, and carefully picks her way out of the cave.

The squeaks-- bats, she realizes, the cave is full of bats-- follow her outside. There’s no buildings as far as she can see, no roads, nothing man made at all. Several of the bats come closer, perching cautiously on her head.

“Sorry, guys. I don’t… You don’t want to come along for this one.” Claire shakes her head, pushing most of the bats away. One latches on, tiny claws tangling themselves tighter into her hair before she gives up. “If you insist, you twit. I think this is a bad idea.”

The world spins again-- the opposite direction this time, although what that means is anyone’s guess-- and she’s deposited on smooth grass, pockmarked with mole hills. Turning around, she watches a line of old white guys traipse across the grass, followed by younger white guys carrying golf bags.

Yeah, whatever this is, it’s not where Kaia is.

Sighing, she tries again.

It’s right this time, she thinks. Or closer than she’s ever gotten before. It’s got the same perpetual twilight thing going as before and trees that belong in an old forest anyway.

The bat, still tangled in her hair, squeals and pulls sharply on one side, twisting her head around like the rat in Ratatouille. “Jesus, what?”

There’s a giant skull a few yards away, nearly shoulder tall. Looking around, she nods. Yeah, this is it. The ropes she’d cut from Sam and Dean are still lying at the base of a couple of trees. Sighing, Claire nods, shoves the artifact into her back pocket-- it’s only a bit bigger than her cellphone, it fits well enough-- and carefully sets about untangling the bat from her hair.

Holding it up in her palm, she looks at it sternly. “Can you keep up if you’re flying? Or do you need a ride?” She pauses, sighs. “I don’t even know if you can understand me.”

The bat leaps out of her hand, catching itself on upswept wings and flying off towards where Claire’s pretty sure the exit point was. She follows it, not sure what else to do.

Walking, the distance between the skull and where the glowy space vagina is much longer. Claire doesn’t dare make too much noise, or turn her phone on to use as a flashlight. She’s reduced to creeping between trees. Occasionally, she hears something crash through the forest, something giant and two-legged running after prey of some sort. She always freezes, standing motionless behind whatever cover she can find until it passes.

Her bat friend stays close, letting out soft squeaks and chirps when it’s safe to move on, flying in large looping spirals, always coming back to rest on Claire’s shoulder or a nearby tree.

Kaia’s dead. Claire had known that. It’s been months after all, of increasingly desperate research, of nightmares of what actually happened, of dreams of what didn’t. Somehow though, it never… it never hit her what would happen after she got to Kaia’s body.

It’s right where they left it, still identifiably her, although paler, stiff. Claire would guess only hours have passed if they were on Earth, but they’re not, so who knows. It doesn’t matter. Even if she was bloated and gross, Claire would still be bringing her home.

The bat comes around to land on her head again, sweeping a wing around in something that could, potentially, be a hug.

“Yeah. Thanks,” Claire mutters. “Let’s… let’s do this.”

It takes a moment to figure out how to juggle Kaia and the panel. The bat simply crawls into one of her jacket pockets, safely contained without having to fight for a hold. In the end, Claire has to lay the ivory on Kaia’s too still chest, pull her into her lap and awkwardly mumble the spell, focusing on home.

The spinning and whirling take longer this time, spinning first one way then the other, almost like the spell is trying to figure out which way is home. After a moment though, it smoothes out, depositing Claire and Kaia’s body back into the storeroom at the bunker.

 

* * *

 

Alex jumps back when Claire crashes to the floor in front of her, half-covered by a slender form. “Claire!”

Claire groans, flopping a hand to the side and slapping the floor a few times. “Hey,” she says sheepishly. “I uh… yeah. Little help?”

“Goddammit.” Alex carefully pulls the body-- Kaia’s, of course. Wouldn’t do for Claire to be sensible-- away, wincing slightly at the livid bruising and stiffness of the corpse. “Great, you brought back a body.”

“Shut up,” Claire snarls, pushing herself off the floor. “We need her remains. Now that we have those, I can bring her home.”

“And how the hell are you planning on doing that?” Alex asks impatiently. She automatically moves though, to clear off the table in the center of the room. “Raiding alternate universes isn’t enough, so you’re going to break into Heaven?”

“Purgatory.” Claire bites her lip before reaching down to pick up Kaia. “If what Jack found is real…”

“Then if you’re going get Kaia back, we need to get into Purgatory.” Alex sighs and nods. “Alright. You… go get cleaned up and rest. I’ll butter up Sam until he tells me how.”

“Thank you,” Claire breathes out. She drops the ivory panel back into its box, shoves it back onto the shelf. “I won’t need long, just a nap.”

“It’ll take as long as it takes. A few more hours won’t make much difference.”

**Author's Note:**

> Totally not playing to win this month, so go to town.


End file.
